LEWISTON – Bates College alumni and guest artists will perform in a concert honoring Natasha Chances, the late pianist, music instructor and mentor to generations of students.

Commemorating the legacy that Chances built during nearly 50 years in the community, “A Concert in Memory of Natasha Chances” will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, in the college’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. The event is open to the public at no cost.

The program will consist of short piano performances by students from every decade of Chances’ teaching career and from all over the country. Two pieces have been written for the occasion, and a booklet of students’ reminiscences will be distributed at the concert. A reception will follow the concert.

Chances, of Lewiston, died in April at age 89. Born in Russia, she studied piano in Paris and, in 1940, came to the United States with her parents. She performed and taught piano in New Orleans, Philadelphia and New York City, where she met her husband, Ralph Chances.

In 1958, Ralph joined the Bates faculty as a professor in the department of economics. From that time until her death, Natasha taught piano in Lewiston. She taught private students of all ages and, in 1974, joined the applied music faculty at Bates.

“In Natasha’s teaching, a rigorous and traditional approach to technique blended seamlessly with a devotion to the poetry of the music and a humane interest in her students’ individuality,” said James Parakilas, chair of the music department. “… she helped her students find their own ways of giving meaning and life to what they were playing.”

Chances was predeceased by her husband in 1997.

For more information about the concert, call 786-6135.